Abstract:

A web site usage pattern insight platform may be provided. User behaviors
associated with web page requests, including search queries, may be
captured and analyzed to provide usage pattern insights. The pattern
insights may be aggregated across a plurality of users and may be used to
provide recommendations for improving a system that hosts the web pages.

Claims:

1. A method for providing web usage pattern insights, the method
comprising:capturing a plurality of user behaviors;analyzing the
plurality of user behaviors to identify a usage pattern;categorizing the
usage pattern; andproviding a report of the identified usage pattern.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the user behaviors
comprises a user behavior captured by a client-side logging object.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the user behaviors
comprises a user behavior captured by a server-side logging object.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising customizing the provided
report according to an attribute associated with a user to whom the
report is provided.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein customizing the provided report
according to an attribute associated with a user to whom the report is
provided comprises restricting at least one of the aggregated behavior
statistics from view by the user.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein customizing the provided report
according to an attribute associated with a user to whom the report is
provided comprises allowing the user to filter the plurality of
aggregated behavior statistics.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising recommending a change to a
web site associated with the plurality of user behaviors.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a syndication feed
of the analyzed user behaviors.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the analyzed plurality of user
behaviors comprises at least one of the following: a search query
returning no results, and a search query returning no user-accepted
results.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the usage pattern identified from the
analyzed plurality of user behaviors comprises a dissatisfaction with a
search query.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the provided report comprises a list
of a plurality of search queries for which users are dissatisfied.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising providing a recommendation
to add content associated with at least one of the plurality of search
queries for which users are dissatisfied.

14. A computer-readable medium which stores a set of instructions which
when executed performs a method for providing web usage pattern insights,
the method executed by the set of instructions comprising:capturing a
plurality of usage data associated with a web page request;categorizing
each of the plurality of usage data;analyzing the plurality of usage data
to identify a usage pattern; andproviding a report of the identified
usage pattern.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein categorizing each of
the plurality of usage data comprises associating each of the plurality
of usage data with at least one of the following categories: traffic,
search, and inventory.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the filtering
criteria comprises at least one of the following: a user associated with
at least one of the plurality of usage data, a content type, a search
scope, a date range, and an exclusion criteria.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, further comprising
configuring a layout of the provided report.

20. A system for providing a web site usage insight platform, the system
comprising:a memory storage; anda processing unit coupled to the memory
storage, wherein the processing unit is operative to:receive a request
for a web page from a client, wherein the request for the web page
comprises at least one search query;send the requested web page to the
client, wherein the requested web page comprises at least one search
result;capture a plurality of user behaviors associated with the client,
wherein the captured plurality of user behaviors comprises at least one
first user behavior captured by the system and at least one second user
behavior captured by the client;identify at least one usage pattern
according to the captured plurality of user behaviors;aggregate the
identified at least one usage pattern with a plurality of other usage
patterns identified according to a plurality of other user behaviors
associated with at least one other client;determine whether the
aggregated usage patterns indicate a potential system improvement
according to at least one configurable metric; andin response to
determining that the aggregated usage patterns indicate a potential
system improvement according to at least one configurable metric, provide
a recommendation for improving the system.

Description:

RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001]Related U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/492,704, filed on Jun.
26, 2009 entitled "Platform for Configurable Logging Instrumentation,"
assigned to the assignee of the present application and having attorney
docket number 14917.1301US01/MS327294.01, is hereby incorporated by
reference.

[0002]Related U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, filed on even date
herewith entitled "Best-Bet Recommendations," assigned to the assignee of
the present application and having attorney docket number
14917.1303US01/MS327295.01, is hereby incorporated by reference.

[0003]Related U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/492,675, filed on Jun.
26, 2009 entitled "Batched Transfer of Arbitrarily Distributed Data,"
assigned to the assignee of the present application and having attorney
docket number 14917.1304US01/MS327296.01, is hereby incorporated by
reference.

[0004]Related U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, filed on even date
herewith entitled "Dynamic Information Hierarchies," assigned to the
assignee of the present application and having attorney docket number
14917.1305US01/MS327316.01, is hereby incorporated by reference.

[0005]Related U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, filed on even date
herewith entitled "Load-Balancing and Scaling for Analytics Data,"
assigned to the assignee of the present application and having attorney
docket number 14917.1306US01/MS327318.01, is hereby incorporated by
reference.

BACKGROUND

[0006]A web usage pattern insight platform provides management of an
information system and its content. In some situations, analytics data
for a large web site can consume large amounts of storage and overwhelm
users with information overload. For example, user behavior can de
difficult to quantify and analyze for relevant feedback, particularly as
systems scale upwards. Obtaining insights based on this behavior can
require significant human effort and risks operator bias and error.
Furthermore, as the amount of data increases, any human-realizable
insights become too shallow or out of date to be useful.

SUMMARY

[0007]A web usage pattern insight platform may be provided. This Summary
is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form
that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This
Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of
the claimed subject matter. Nor is this Summary intended to be used to
limit the claimed subject matter's scope.

[0008]A web site usage pattern insight platform may be provided. User
behaviors associated with web page requests, including search queries,
may be captured and analyzed to provide usage pattern insights. The
pattern insights may be aggregated across a plurality of users and may be
used to provide recommendations for improving a system that hosts the web
pages.

[0009]Both the foregoing general description and the following detailed
description provide examples and are explanatory only. Accordingly, the
foregoing general description and the following detailed description
should not be considered to be restrictive. Further, features or
variations may be provided in addition to those set forth herein. For
example, embodiments may be directed to various feature combinations and
sub-combinations described in the detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0010]The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute
a part of this disclosure, illustrate various embodiments of the present
invention. In the drawings:

[0011]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an operating environment;

[0012]FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a method for providing a web usage pattern
insight platform; and

[0013]FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a system including a computing device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0014]The following detailed description refers to the accompanying
drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the
drawings and the following description to refer to the same or similar
elements. While embodiments of the invention may be described,
modifications, adaptations, and other implementations are possible. For
example, substitutions, additions, or modifications may be made to the
elements illustrated in the drawings, and the methods described herein
may be modified by substituting, reordering, or adding stages to the
disclosed methods. Accordingly, the following detailed description does
not limit the invention. Instead, the proper scope of the invention is
defined by the appended claims.

[0015]A web usage pattern insight platform may be provided. Consistent
with embodiments of the present invention, user behaviors associated with
both client and server devices may be captured and analyzed to provide
various insights that may be used to improve users' experiences with a
web site. Behaviors such as counting the number of times a page is
loaded, user dwell times, and page element interactions may be logged by
the insight platform, analyzed, and aggregated into behavior reports with
recommendations to improve site performance and utility.
Multi-dimensional reports of behavior patterns may then be presented to
site administrators. For example, trends may be identified in user
traffic that may result in hardware upgrade recommendations, with in
depth details available to the administrator through searches and
filtering.

[0016]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an operating environment 100. Operating
environment 100 may comprise a client 110, a web site farm 120, a logging
server 130, an analytics server 140, and a site administration device
150. Client 110, logging server 130, analytics server 140, and site
administration device 150 may comprise, for example, a computing device
300 such as that described in greater detail below with respect to FIG.
3. Web site farm 120 may comprise one and/or a plurality of server
computers each comprising a computer such as computing device 300
operative to host web pages associated with one and/or more web sites.
Client 110, web site farm 120, logging server 130, analytics server 140,
and/or site administration device 150 may be in communication with each
other over a computing network or other communications medium. For
example, client 110 may be operative to request and retrieve a web page
from a web server associated with site farm 120 via the network and send
captured user behaviors to logging server 130.

[0017]The retrieved web page may comprise a plurality of rendering
instructions encoded in a markup language, such as HyperText Markup
Language (HTML). The markup language may provide a means to describe the
structure of text-based information in a document by identifying the
structure of text elements as links, headings, paragraphs, lists. The
markup language may also supplement the text with objects such as form
controls, images, and executable scripts. Executable scripts may enable
programmatic access to other objects on the page and to hardware and/or
software associated with client 110. For example, a logging object may be
operative to detect activities associated with user interface devices
attached to client 110, such as a keyboard and/or mouse, and store the
detected activity on a local storage device, such as RAM and/or a hard
drive.

[0018]FIG. 2 is a flow chart setting forth the general stages involved in
a method 200 consistent with an embodiment of the invention for providing
a web site usage pattern insight platform. Method 200 may be implemented
using a computing device 300 as described in more detail below with
respect to FIG. 3. Ways to implement the stages of method 200 will be
described in greater detail below. Method 200 may begin at starting block
205 and proceed to stage 210 where computing device 300 may receive a
request for a web page. For example, client 110 may request a web page
from a server associated with site farm 120. The request may comprise a
uniform resource locator (URL) associated with the web page, and may
comprise other properties such as form element options, web application
commands, search queries, browser application properties (e.g. a session
ID and an application name), and/or a referral page's identifier.

[0019]Method 200 may then advance to stage 220 where computing device 300
may send the requested page to client 110. For example, site farm 120 may
locate the page at the request's URL and transmit the page via a network.
A server associated with site farm 120 may also process properties
associated with the request. For example, site farm 120 may process a
search query by providing a plurality of search results and/or process
form element options and provide a response according to those options.

[0020]From stage 220, where computing device 300 sent the requested page
to the requesting client, method 200 may advance to stage 230 where
computing device 300 may capture a user behavior associated with the
requested page. User behaviors associated with either and/or both of the
web server and the requesting client may be captured. For example, on the
server side, a server-side logging object may increment a hit counter
associated with the requested page and/or track an amount of bandwidth
and/or storage used by pages stored on site farm 120. On the client side,
client 110 may comprise a client-side logging object operative to log
whether a user bookmarks, saves, and/or prints the page and/or a search
result, a time at which client 110 selects a new page to view, whether or
not client 110 ends a search on a result received from site farm 120.

[0021]Consistent with embodiments of the invention, captured user
behaviors may be stored from client 110 and/or site farm 120 to a
different computing device, such as logging server 130. Logging server
130 may be co-located at site farm 120 or may be located at a
geographically distinct site.

[0022]Computing device 300 may also categorize each captured user behavior
and/or associate user information with each captured behavior. For
example, a plurality of user behaviors may be associated with a common
identifier, such as a user ID. Categories may comprise, for example,
inventory, traffic, and/or search. For example, inventory behaviors may
comprise such elements as a number of servers associated with site farm
120, a number of sites, applications, and/or pages hosted on site farm
120, and/or an amount of free/used memory on servers associated with site
farm 120. Traffic behaviors may comprise elements such as bandwidth used,
page hit counts, referrer counts and identifiers. Search behaviors may
comprise elements such as a count and/or list of search queries, numbers
of results returned for any and/or all search queries, and/or numbers of
failed queries.

[0023]From stage 230, method 200 may advance to stage 240 where computing
device 300 may analyze the captured user behavior(s) to identify usage
patterns associated with the requested page and/or web site. Analytics
server 140 may process a single user's captured behaviors to identify
patterns associated with a single page request and/or the user's
interactions with several pages hosted by site farm 120.

[0024]From stage 240, method 200 may advance to stage 250 where computing
device 300 may aggregate patterns identified from behaviors associated
with multiple users. For example, analytics server 140 may aggregate page
hits from multiple users to provide a total hit count for a web page.
Computing device 300 may provide a report of the identified behaviors,
such as to site administrator 150.

[0025]Consistent with embodiments of the invention, behaviors may be
analyzed to identify multiple usage patterns and/or trends. For example,
a particular search query may not return any search results or may return
results that a user does not select to follow. A usage pattern of
rejecting the results and/or repeating or revising the search may be
identified. Computing device 300 may provide a report listing any and/or
all of the queries that return unsatisfactory results. Aggregating the
queries may identify variants and/or general subject areas that may
benefit from improvement.

[0026]For another example, computing device 300 may provide a report
detailing which pages are being hit and/or trends in traffic volume for
pages and/or sites. The report may, for example, help direct higher
revenue ads to popular pages and/or help direct system upgrades (e.g.
memory and/or bandwidth) to improve availability. A report may help
identify which day of the week has the most and/or least page hits.

[0027]Usage patterns may be centered around the idea of intent. A user who
requests a page or issues a search query may have some intent that may
not be visible to the system that's providing the data or the results
from the search query. The system, such as a server of site farm 120, may
see a key word that the user entered in a search query or the navigation
that is happening on a particular page. Computing device 300 may analyze
these user behaviors to try and identify the user's intent. For example,
a search query may apply to two domains, such as a search query of
"windows". The system may not be able to determine from the query term
alone whether the user may mean building materials or the Windows®
operating system. Analyzing the user's behavior patterns may comprise
capturing the domains of the results returned on the search query and
capturing the user's reactions to the results. For example, a user
spending a longer time on results associated with exterior doors and
windows while ignoring results associated with computer systems may
identify the user's intent. Each time a user interacts with these
results, the system may gain more and more insight into users' behaviors.
For example, if most users select the same results, the system may place
those results higher in the list of search results when the same query is
entered.

[0028]Consistent with embodiments of the invention, a plurality of reports
may be provided based on the captured behaviors and identified patterns.
Each of the reports may be filtered by an accessing user, such as by
specifying a date range, or a scope of pages for which to view data.
Table 1 comprises a non-exhaustive list of example reports and Table 2
comprises a sample summary report. Reports and lists of identified
patterns may be provided as a web page and/or a syndicated feed and may
be customized according to a user to whom the report is provided. For
example, an administrator may see more detailed statistics than an
end-user requesting a publicly available report.

TABLE-US-00001
TABLE 1
Report List
Report Type Description and Factors
Category: Traffic
Number of Page Views This report may show how many page views a web
site gets per day. The report may be filtered and/or
sorted for a user-configurable date range. A page
view may be counted each time a client's visit to the
web site generate a server page request. The report
may illustrate trends associated with a traffic load, a
traffic pattern of page views, and when peak/off peak
times are.
Number of Unique Visitors This report may show how many unique visitors
visited a web site per selectable time period (e.g.
day, hour, week, month). The report may illustrate
trends associated with a total number of different
visitors which viewed the web site in a given period,
the visitor traffic patterns, and when peak/off peak
times are.
Number of Referrers This report may show how many referring instances
a web site gets from external referral pages per day
for a selectable date range. The report may illustrate
trends associated with when the web site is getting
the most number of referrers and traffic patterns of
external referrers.
Top Pages This report may show the most popular pages on a
site based on number of times each page was
viewed by visitors for a selectable date range. The
report may illustrate trends associated with popularity
between different pages on the website, clients'
interests and preferences, pages that need
improvements, or finding page views for specific
pages to measure marketing effectiveness.
Top Visitors This report may show top unique visitors who have
visited pages on a web site for a selectable date
range. The report may illustrate trends associated
with understanding who has used the web site most
and tailoring the web site to those top visitors'
interests and needs. For anonymous visitors, traffic
from different visitors with the same IP address may
be differentiated.
Top Referrers This report may show external referral pages that
have contributed referring instances to pages on a
web site. The report may illustrate trends associated
with where external referrals to the web site came
from, how visitors came to the web site, and analyze
the effectiveness of external referring links to the
web site.
Top Destinations This report may show the most popular external
pages clients went to after they left pages on a web
site. The report may illustrate trends associated with
visitors' traffic patterns after they leave the site and
analyzing the effectiveness of referrals to other sites.
Top Browsers This report may show the most popular browser
types and versions used by visitors on a web site.
The report may illustrate trends associated with
technologies the visitors use, and may determine
how to configure the web site for optimal viewing.
Category: Search
Number of Queries This report may show how many search queries a
web site gets per day for a selectable date range.
The report may illustrate trends associated with
search query volume trends and may determine
when peak/off peak times are.
Top Queries This report may show the most popular search
queries issued on a site for a selectable date range.
The report may illustrate trends associated with
information the visitors are looking for in the web site.
Failed Queries This report may show search queries that returned
no search results or received zero or low click-
through. The report may illustrate trends associated
with search queries that resulted user dissatisfaction.
Best Bet Usage This report may show the number of click-throughs
Best Bet URLs received for the search keywords.
Best Bets may be added manually and/or added by
accepting system recommendations in a Best Bet
Suggestions report.
Best Bet Suggestions This report may show recommendations of Best Bet
URLs for certain search keywords.
Category: Inventory
Storage Usage This report may show a trended snapshot of storage
usage of a site collection for the date range reported.
The report may illustrate a storage growth trend of
the site collection.
Number of sites This report may show a trended snapshot of a
number of sites a site collection has for the date
range reported. The report may illustrate a growth
trend of site creation and deletion in the site
collection.
Number of site collections This report may show a trended snapshot of a
number of site collections a Web Application has for
the date range reported. The report may illustrate a
growth trend of site collection creation and deletion in
the Web Application.
Number of Lists This report may show a trended snapshot of a
number of Lists the site collection has for the date
range reported. The report may illustrate a growth
trend of List creation and deletion in the site
collection.
Number of Libraries This report may show a trended snapshot of the
number of Libraries a site collection has for the date
range reported. The report may illustrate a growth
trend of Library creation and deletion in the site
collection.
Top site Templates This report may show popular site templates used to
create sites in a site collection for the date range
reported. The report may illustrate a current usage
of the site template inventory, and help optimize
future investments of site templates.
Top site collection Templates This report may show popular site collection
templates used to create site collections in a Web
Application for the date range reported. The report
may illustrate a current usage of the site collection
template inventory and help optimize future
investments of site collection templates.
Top site Languages This report may show top site languages based on
number of sites created using each language for the
date range reported. The report may illustrate a site
language distribution in the site collection.
Top site Product Versions This report may show top site product versions
based on a product version property of each site in a
site collection for the date reported. The report may
illustrate a site product version distribution in the site
collection, especially in gradual upgrade scenarios.
Top List Templates This report may show popular list templates used to
create Lists in the site collection for the date range
reported. The report may illustrate a current usage of
the list template inventory and help optimize future
investments of list templates.
Top Library Templates This report may show popular library templates used
to create Libraries in a site collection for the date
range reported. The report may illustrate a current
usage of the library template inventory and help
optimize future investments of library templates.

[0029]From stage 250, where computing device 300 aggregated the identified
patterns into a usage report, method 200 may advance to stage 260 where
computing device 300 may determine whether the identified usage patterns
may indicate an improvement that may be made to the page and/or site. For
example, analytics server 140 may determine which search queries result
in unsatisfactory search results and rank them according to their
popularity.

[0030]If, at stage 260, computing device 300 determines that an
improvement may be made, method 200 may advance to stage 270 where
computing device 300 may provide a recommendation. For example, is
analytics server 140 identifies a search query that returns
unsatisfactory results, analytics server 140 may recommend adding content
to the page and/or website or adding suggested search results to the
site. For another example, if a site experiences a high server load
during an indentified time of day, analytics server 140 may recommend
reducing back-end processing load (e.g. backups and maintenance) during
this time. Once computing device 300 provides a recommendation in stage
270, or if no improvements are determined in stage 260, method 200 may
end at stage 280.

[0031]An embodiment consistent with the invention may comprise a system
for providing web usage pattern insights. The system may comprise a
memory storage and a processing unit coupled to the memory storage. The
processing unit may be operative to capture a plurality of user
behaviors, analyze the plurality of user behaviors to identify a usage
pattern, and provide a report of the identified usage pattern. The report
may be customized for various users, such as by restricting some
behaviors, statistics, and/or patterns from some users. Users may also
provide attributes, such as through a user interface element, for
filtering the reports. Such attributes may comprise, for example, a user,
a date range, a content type, a search scope, and an exclusion criteria.

[0032]Another embodiment consistent with the invention may comprise a
system for providing web usage pattern insights. The system may comprise
a memory storage and a processing unit coupled to the memory storage. The
processing unit may be operative to capture a plurality of usage data
associated with a web page request, categorize each of the plurality of
usage data, analyze the plurality of usage data to identify a usage
pattern, and provide a report of the identified usage pattern. The
identified usage patterns and the report may be categorized based on the
source and/or application of the underlying usage data. Categories may
comprise, for example, traffic, search, and inventory. The processing
unit may be further operative to configure the report's layout, such as
by specifying fonts, colors, and/or templates for web-based reports.

[0033]Yet another embodiment consistent with the invention may comprise a
system for providing a web site usage insight platform. The system may
comprise a memory storage and a processing unit coupled to the memory
storage. The processing unit may be operative to receive a request for a
web page from a client, send the requested web page to the client,
capture a plurality of user behaviors associated with the client,
identify at least one usage pattern according to the captured plurality
of user behaviors, aggregate the identified at least one usage pattern
with a plurality of other usage patterns identified according to a
plurality of other user behaviors associated with at least one other
client, determine whether the aggregated usage patterns indicate a
potential system improvement according to at least one configurable
metric, and provide a recommendation for improving the system

[0034]FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a system including computing device
300. Consistent with an embodiment of the invention, the aforementioned
memory storage and processing unit may be implemented in a computing
device, such as computing device 300 of FIG. 3. Any suitable combination
of hardware, software, or firmware may be used to implement the memory
storage and processing unit. For example, the memory storage and
processing unit may be implemented with computing device 300 or any of
other computing devices 318, in combination with computing device 300.
The aforementioned system, device, and processors are examples and other
systems, devices, and processors may comprise the aforementioned memory
storage and processing unit, consistent with embodiments of the
invention. Furthermore, computing device 300 may comprise an operating
environment for system 100 as described above. System 100 may operate in
other environments and is not limited to computing device 300.

[0035]With reference to FIG. 3, a system consistent with an embodiment of
the invention may include a computing device, such as computing device
300. In a basic configuration, computing device 300 may include at least
one processing unit 302 and a system memory 304. Depending on the
configuration and type of computing device, system memory 304 may
comprise, but is not limited to, volatile (e.g. random access memory
(RAM)), non-volatile (e.g. read-only memory (ROM)), flash memory, or any
combination. System memory 304 may include operating system 305, one or
more programming modules 306, and may include a web server 307. Operating
system 305, for example, may be suitable for controlling computing device
300's operation. In one embodiment, programming modules 306 may include
an analytics platform 320. Furthermore, embodiments of the invention may
be practiced in conjunction with a graphics library, other operating
systems, or any other application program and is not limited to any
particular application or system. This basic configuration is illustrated
in FIG. 3 by those components within a dashed line 308.

[0036]Computing device 300 may have additional features or functionality.
For example, computing device 300 may also include additional data
storage devices (removable and/or non-removable) such as, for example,
magnetic disks, optical disks, or tape. Such additional storage is
illustrated in FIG. 3 by a removable storage 309 and a non-removable
storage 310. Computer storage media may include volatile and nonvolatile,
removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology
for storage of information, such as computer readable instructions, data
structures, program modules, or other data. System memory 304, removable
storage 309, and non-removable storage 310 are all computer storage media
examples (i.e memory storage.) Computer storage media may include, but is
not limited to, RAM, ROM, electrically erasable read-only memory
(EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital
versatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes,
magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices,
or any other medium which can be used to store information and which can
be accessed by computing device 300. Any such computer storage media may
be part of device 300. Computing device 300 may also have input device(s)
312 such as a keyboard, a mouse, a pen, a sound input device, a touch
input device, etc. Output device(s) 314 such as a display, speakers, a
printer, etc. may also be included. The aforementioned devices are
examples and others may be used.

[0037]Computing device 300 may also contain a communication connection 316
that may allow device 300 to communicate with other computing devices
318, such as over a network in a distributed computing environment, for
example, an intranet or the Internet. Communication connection 316 is one
example of communication media. Communication media may typically be
embodied by computer readable instructions, data structures, program
modules, or other data in a modulated data signal, such as a carrier wave
or other transport mechanism, and includes any information delivery
media. The term "modulated data signal" may describe a signal that has
one or more characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode
information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation,
communication media may include wired media such as a wired network or
direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, radio
frequency (RF), infrared, and other wireless media. The term computer
readable media as used herein may include both storage media and
communication media.

[0038]As stated above, a number of program modules and data files may be
stored in system memory 304, including operating system 305. While
executing on processing unit 302, programming modules 306 (e.g. analytics
platform 320) may perform processes including, for example, one or more
method 200's stages as described above. The aforementioned process is an
example, and processing unit 302 may perform other processes. Other
programming modules that may be used in accordance with embodiments of
the present invention may include electronic mail and contacts
applications, word processing applications, spreadsheet applications,
database applications, slide presentation applications, drawing or
computer-aided application programs, etc.

[0039]Generally, consistent with embodiments of the invention, program
modules may include routines, programs, components, data structures, and
other types of structures that may perform particular tasks or that may
implement particular abstract data types. Moreover, embodiments of the
invention may be practiced with other computer system configurations,
including hand-held devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based
or programmable consumer electronics, minicomputers, mainframe computers,
and the like. Embodiments of the invention may also be practiced in
distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote
processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a
distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both
local and remote memory storage devices.

[0040]Furthermore, embodiments of the invention may be practiced in an
electrical circuit comprising discrete electronic elements, packaged or
integrated electronic chips containing logic gates, a circuit utilizing a
microprocessor, or on a single chip containing electronic elements or
microprocessors. Embodiments of the invention may also be practiced using
other technologies capable of performing logical operations such as, for
example, AND, OR, and NOT, including but not limited to mechanical,
optical, fluidic, and quantum technologies. In addition, embodiments of
the invention may be practiced within a general purpose computer or in
any other circuits or systems.

[0041]Embodiments of the invention, for example, may be implemented as a
computer process (method), a computing system, or as an article of
manufacture, such as a computer program product or computer readable
media. The computer program product may be a computer storage media
readable by a computer system and encoding a computer program of
instructions for executing a computer process. The computer program
product may also be a propagated signal on a carrier readable by a
computing system and encoding a computer program of instructions for
executing a computer process. Accordingly, the present invention may be
embodied in hardware and/or in software (including firmware, resident
software, micro-code, etc.). In other words, embodiments of the present
invention may take the form of a computer program product on a
computer-usable or computer-readable storage medium having
computer-usable or computer-readable program code embodied in the medium
for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system. A
computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be any medium that can
contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use
by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or
device.

[0042]The computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be, for example
but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic,
infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, device, or propagation
medium. More specific computer-readable medium examples (a non-exhaustive
list), the computer-readable medium may include the following: an
electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer
diskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an
erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an
optical fiber, and a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM).
Note that the computer-usable or computer-readable medium could even be
paper or another suitable medium upon which the program is printed, as
the program can be electronically captured, via, for instance, optical
scanning of the paper or other medium, then compiled, interpreted, or
otherwise processed in a suitable manner, if necessary, and then stored
in a computer memory.

[0043]Embodiments of the present invention, for example, are described
above with reference to block diagrams and/or operational illustrations
of methods, systems, and computer program products according to
embodiments of the invention. The functions/acts noted in the blocks may
occur out of the order as shown in any flowchart. For example, two blocks
shown in succession may in fact be executed substantially concurrently or
the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon
the functionality/acts involved.

[0044]While certain embodiments of the invention have been described,
other embodiments may exist. Furthermore, although embodiments of the
present invention have been described as being associated with data
stored in memory and other storage mediums, data can also be stored on or
read from other types of computer-readable media, such as secondary
storage devices, like hard disks, floppy disks, or a CD-ROM, a carrier
wave from the Internet, or other forms of RAM or ROM. Further, the
disclosed methods' stages may be modified in any manner, including by
reordering stages and/or inserting or deleting stages, without departing
from the invention.

[0045]All rights including copyrights in the code included herein are
vested in and the property of the Applicant. The Applicant retains and
reserves all rights in the code included herein, and grants permission to
reproduce the material only in connection with reproduction of the
granted patent and for no other purpose.

[0046]While the specification includes examples, the invention's scope is
indicated by the following claims. Furthermore, while the specification
has been described in language specific to structural features and/or
methodological acts, the claims are not limited to the features or acts
described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above
are disclosed as example for embodiments of the invention.